2. Write blog entry about SFC open research forum

Went to the SFC open research forum last 2004.11.23 to meet Mark Chignell, director of UToronto's Interactive Media Lab. I was a bit nervous about meeting him, as he seems to be the best fit adviser for my graduate studies.
Unfortunately, had forgotten to bring a print-out of my CurriculumVitae and my
StatementOfPurpose. Although Dr. Chignell said I could e-mail it to
him, I decided not to waste the opportunity, so I went to a cybercafe
in Shinjuku after lunch. Also noticed some interesting booths listed in
the forum guide that I'd missed during my first pass, so definitely wanted to pass by again.

Wandered around the other booths before dropping off the print-outs.
Research projects included ambient computing and augmented reality,
and were all very well-done. I'd like to get the Philippines to that
level of research. Materials were in Japanese, of course. Must study
more so that next time something like this happens, I can understand
the posters and explanations!

Dr. Chignell demonstrated his spatialized audio conferencing project
with Wang and Pierre. Wang used a wireless Sony Vaio U50 in the same
room. Pierre was in Canada, but the sound quality was still very good.
Spatialization was interesting, although I could have distinguished
their voices even without it.

A lot of people were interested, so explanations kept Dr. Chignell
very busy. I even had the opportunity to help demonstrate it by
chatting in Japanese. Also chatted with Pierre a bit about his
research. Apparently, he wasn't associated with the same group, but
helped out as their programmer. He knew how useful spatialization
could be for audioconferencing, but wasn't sure if there were other
applications for it. I mentioned the Nomadic Radio project I read
about when I was doing my wearable computing project in fourth year.
When Dr. Chignell heard that, he lit up and started recounting tidbits
about that paper off the top of his head. Was rather surprised, as I
thought he wasn't paying attention to my conversation with Pierre. (It
can get very boring when you can hear only one side of the
conversation!) Now feel somewhat guilty, as wonder if I missed the
opportunity to talk to him about possible research projects.

Am really excited about UToronto and hope I can join their mobile
computing and personal information management group. =) Will work on
identifying possible research projects and funding opportunities now.

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Page: 2004.11.27

Updated: 2004-12-2810:52:0310:52:03-0500

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